THANK YOU for all your efforts during Million More in May! We sure hope you had as much fun taking pictures as we did watching the records pour in by the thousands!

Here are the stats from Million More in May:
376,556 total images uploaded
316,108 total records transcribed
773 cemeteries added and
2,856 new users.

While we didn’t get a million uploads in May alone, we DID break our record for the largest number of uploads in a single month! Plus, during the month of May we also hit the 4,000,000 records mark! Thanks to all your hard work and contributions, BillionGraves is growing by the minute with more than 4 million records. What an amazing milestone!

The following people are the winners of our Million More in May prize: BillionGraves T-shirts!

Ktwinston (25,197) + SUBWAY gift card!

Carolyn (24,477) + SUBWAY gift card!

OurFamilyBefore (20,336) + SUBWAY gift card!

jaitken (12,157)

Whitejaegar (11,225)

Paulwuzhere (9,070)

BeNotFotgotten (6,737)

Kiwikel (6,553)

Marty95A (6,499)

Jim Pack (6,399)

zaneermine (6,280)

Charlene (6,203)

Magnumopus (5,415)

BobTurner (4,836)

englishguyinwi (4,741)

Relevo (4,675)

Dabriase (4,561)

BrittayaChuckie (4,480)

pmoreno65 (4,038)

Bonedigger (3,988)

edeainfj (3,667)

Sthooper (3,627)

Campbell2u (3,625)

Kathy (3,537)

Poffenbergerds (3,513)

TamKar (3,355)

psych.cats (3,105)

Kjetil (2,979)

Tombstoneguy59 (2,919)

jorobi (2,754)

If you are one of our 30 winners, watch your email for details on how to claim your prize or email lisa@billiongraves.com for more details.

Thank you for making Million More in May a wonderfully successful month!

That’s right, Memorial Day was first proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John A. Logan, National commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. He called it “Decoration Day” when things like flowers should be put on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers. He declared it was to be celebrated on May 30 of each year.1

General John A. Logan

2. All Americans are asked to pause for a National Moment of Remembrance at 3pm on Memorial Day.

On May 2, 2000, Congress passed a resolution that asks Americans to pause “for one minute at 3:00 p.m. (local time) on Memorial Day, to remember and reflect on the sacrifices made by so many to provide freedom for all.”2 This was passed in an effort to remind Americans why we celebrate Memorial Day.

3. It is uncertain exactly where and when Memorial Day began.

As mentioned previously, John A. Logan was the first to declare a National “Decoration Day” or Memorial Day, but people began this tradition even before then. More than 5 cities have claimed to be the original beginnings of Memorial day including:

Columbus, Georgia,

Columbus, Miss.,

Boalsburg, Pennsylvania,

Carbondale, Illinois,

and Charleston, South Carolina.3

It was in Charleston, South Carolina that on May 1, 1865 thousands of residents gathered to honor those men that had died at Planters’ Race Course—which had been converted into a Confederate prison and burial ground for more than 250 Union soldiers.4 This is one of the first Memorial Day Celebrations that we know of.

Despite the dissidence of where exactly it began, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the original birthplace of Memorial Day to be Waterloo, NY in May 1966. And it was there that they held the “centennial observance of Memorial Day.”5

Civil War Veterans, Fourth of July or Decoration Day Celebration, Ortonville, Minnesota. ca. 1880

4. It is tradition to wear a red poppy on Memorial Day.

Moina Michael, a U.S. professor and humanitarian was inspired by John McCrae’s 1915 wartime poem: In Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the Crosses, row on row…

She was so touched by the poem that she used $10 given to her during a YMCA Overseas War Secretaries’ conference to purchase 25 silk poppies for herself and some other delegates to wear.6

People caught on to the tradition and soon people were selling poppies to benefit war orphans in France and Belgium, or veterans of past wars. She also wrote her own poem in response to John McCrae’s:

We cherish too, the Poppy redThat grows on fields where valor led,It seems to signal to the skiesThat blood of heroes never dies.7

Today, these traditions and historical facts seems to have faded so much that we tend to see Memorial Day as just another 3-day weekend that marks the beginning of summer. But by knowing the history of Memorial day, we CAN remember why we celebrate it in the first place: to honor those who have lost their lives in service to their country and our own family members who made it possible for us to be here today.

This headstone marks the final resting place of Herbert O. Morrison, who is buried in Scottdale, Pennsylvania. This talented radio announcer was most famous for his radio coverage of the Hindenburg Disaster on May 6, 1937 that killed 36 people. Morrison was not broadcasting live at the time of the explosion, but the recording was rushed back to Chicago where it was broadcast that night. It quickly became the most widely-known eyewitness account to the tragedy.

Morrison’s recording is detailed and descriptive but also captures the horror that everyone involved felt. His emotional reaction to the scene captured just how tragic this disaster was and his use of the phrase “Oh, the humanity” has become a catch-phrase throughout the world.

This You-Tube video dubs Morrison’s voice-over onto film footage of the explosion:

A big thank you to our Twitter follower, Zane Ermine, for pointing this out to us!

As of today, here are the numbers for the results so far of Million More in May:

158,725 images uploaded by 409 people

152,946 records transcribed by 709 people

296 cemeteries added with

Over 80,000 images queue, ready to be transcribed.

We are well on our way to a million! However—as you can see—we still have quite a way to go. And that means we need YOUR help! We know a million is quite the lofty goal, but it would be a huge milestone for BillionGraves. One that YOU could say you were a part of!

So get out to your local cemetery as much as you can these last two weeks. Remember, Memorial day coming up (on May 27th) for those of you in the U.S., which is a great time to take some photos while you’re already out in the cemetery!

Let’s see if together we can accomplish something big. Like a MILLION kind of big.

The newest version of Legacy Mobile (v.1.1) is now available for iOS on the App Store. We heard your feedback and made some improvements you were looking for.

Here’s what you’ll see on the latest version of the app:

Bug fixes. Some of these bugs would make the app crash or the keyboard to lock up (not allowing people to add information in). We caught a bunch of these annoying little errors and fixed them for this version!

Navigation Bar and a History Management button on Family Tree view.
We realized navigating through the family tree was kind of tricky, so we added some forward and back buttons that work similar to your browser’s buttons.

In between these buttons, we also added a history management button that brings up the people you recently viewed for easier navigation between family records.

Information downloading from Family Search won’t keep you from viewing your family tree.In the previous version, you had to wait until the information from Family Search loaded in order to navigate around your family tree. Now, all you will see are little loading indicators for places in your tree that are downloading from Family Search.

Tree View Hints.Still feeling a little lost in the app? We added some hints in the family tree view to help you sort things out. Once you use the app a few times, these won’t appear anymore.

More options for adding/editing events.
Now you can add more life events in to an individual’s record! There are a bunch of new options: Adoption, Adult Christening, Baptism, BarMitzvah, Census, Christening, Cremation, Divorce, Funeral, Moves, and much more!

If you haven’t already, download this version from the App Store and try out the latest and greatest Legacy Mobile Features!